


Thorns

by Sanalith



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-20
Updated: 2012-03-20
Packaged: 2017-11-02 06:59:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/366215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanalith/pseuds/Sanalith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus is not romantic. Hermione is ok wih this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thorns

Hermione Granger had known precisely into what sort of relationship she was entering when she took Severus Snape as her lover. No matter how intellectually stimulating their conversations were, no matter how much she lusted after his library, and no matter how earth-shattering their sex life was, Snape was still Snape. He was the Greasy Git, the Black Bat of the Dungeons, and the bane of Gryffindor House. He vehemently disliked pretty much all of her friends and flatly refused to say more than two words to Ron “The Prat” Weasley and Harry “The-Boy-Who-Kept-On-Bloody-Living” Potter. He tolerated her parents on Christmas and her birthday, but otherwise managed to always wriggle out of family visits. He called her angel and goddess when she was in his bed, but anywhere else, she received a sneer and a “Do you _mind_ , Professor Granger?”

   
He had appearances to maintain, after all.

  
None of this bothered her in the slightest. He had warned her from the first that he was neither romantic nor courtly. Public displays of affection were anathema to him, and if anyone ever noticed the slight softening in his eyes when he saw her walking toward him, he would no doubt obliviate the poor sap on the spot.

  
This was understood, accepted. She did not want to change him, after all, and if he ever started behaving like a love-struck fool, she would probably either hex him into next week and demand to know where the real Severus was, or search out the Weasley twins’ newest cohorts at Hogwarts and use Veritaserum to figure out what they’d spiked his firewhisky with. Seductive Snape was amazing. Happy-sappy Snape would be…well…scary.

  
So when she entered her chambers one evening after a long day of teaching dunderheaded First Years, she stopped in her tracks when she saw the single blood red rose laying on her nightstand.

  
She blinked once. Twice. No, it was still there. And the only other person who could possibly get through her wards was…

  
Whirling around, she saw him detach himself from the shadows behind her door, sweeping toward her like the black bat he was so often called.

  
Picking up the perfect flower, Hermione sniffed it, then looked up.

  
“Why?” she asked simply.

  
Reaching out, he grasped a runaway curl and rubbed it gently between his slim fingers.

  
“To remind you that you are constantly surrounded by thorns, and that one of these days, you’re going to slip and get blood all over those perfect little hands of yours.”

  
Hermione chuckled lowly. “What’s the matter, love? Fretting that we’ve lasted for a year and I haven’t even tried to hex you yet?”

  
Snape shook his head, his hand dropping to his side. “Woman, whatever you say, I will be the death of you one day.”

  
Wrapping her arms around his neck, Hermione stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips gently against his. “Then it is a death to which I shall willingly surrender.” She smiled brightly. “Happy anniversary, Severus.”

  
Sighing, Snape clasped her in his arms tightly, mindful of the rose she still so delicately cradled in her hand.

  
No, he wasn’t romantic. He would never whisper sweet nothings into her ear, never hold her hand in public, never offer midnight cuddles. But there was no symbol of their relationship more perfect than the rose, and once a year, Hermione found one waiting on her nightstand. And if he was right and she did occasionally slip and prick her finger, at least she always had someone nearby to kiss it and make it better.

  
Even if he did grumble about it.


End file.
